Absolute power in officialdom

Chapter 329 The Wounded Woman

Hu Lijin suddenly hugged Wu Zhiyuan.

"County Magistrate Wu, oh no, Zhiyuan, if you want me, then ravage me! Show no mercy!"

"Mayor Hu, have you had too much to drink tonight?"

Wu Zhiyuan is a man of flesh and blood, a man with emotions and desires, but he is not a lecherous scoundrel.

"Zhiyuan, do you know how many men have been eyeing me all these years?"

"Know."

"That's right! So many men dream of sleeping with me. Now, you can sleep with me without any guilt or responsibility. What are you hesitating for? Are you even a man?"

"Mayor Hu, I call you Sister Hu. What exactly happened? Tell me slowly."

Wu Zhiyuan broke free from Hu Lijin's embrace. He wanted to keep his distance from her, afraid that he might be overcome by lust and do something he shouldn't.

Hu Lijing burst into tears.

Wu Zhiyuan brought her a chair and made her sit down, and then brought her a glass of warm water.

"Zhiyuan, Zhou Tianming, he betrayed me! Not only did he betray me, but he also had an illegitimate child with a migrant worker."

Wu Zhiyuan was not particularly surprised.

Zhou Tianming is a section-level cadre in the Municipal Political and Legal Affairs Commission. Although it is not a very high position, it would not be difficult for him to transfer Hu Lijin to Longcheng City by leveraging his connections under the pretext of resolving the long-term separation of the couple.

However, Hu Lijing has been working in Xindian Town.

Furthermore, the couple has never had children.

Children are the bond and bridge between husband and wife.

"Sister Hu, if you trust me, tell me. I can give you some advice."

"Zhiyuan, I trust you and have always considered you my younger brother."

Wu Zhiyuan chuckled: "Sister Hu, were you treating me like a younger brother just now?"

Zhou Tianming betrayed you; it was indeed his fault, and he was the one who wronged you.

But what you just did wasn't punishing him, it was punishing yourself.

Hu Lijin gritted her teeth: "Zhiyuan, I just want to get revenge on Zhou Tianming! For so many years, I have subdued one lecherous wolf after another and remained chaste, but this is the ending I got!"

If Zhou Tianming can cheat, why can't I? I can't swallow this!

Zhiyuan, if you don't want to sleep with me, I won't force you. But I don't believe that no man can sleep with me!

Wait a minute, I'll find a homeless man to sleep with! Then I'll send the photo to Zhou Tianming!

I want him to know that the woman he once cherished most is now a prostitute!

"Sister Hu, what you're doing, though it may seem like you're getting revenge on Zhou Tianming, is actually demeaning yourself."

"Disrespect? You don't understand, you don't understand at all!"

Since you don't dare, I'll find someone else!

Anyway, I have nothing left to lose!

"Sister Hu, it's not worth ruining yourself like this for a man who betrayed you!"

Hu Lijin stood up: "I'll go find homeless people on the street right now!"

Wu Zhiyuan grabbed Hu Lijin's hand: "Sister Hu, don't do this!"

Hu Lijin struggled and said, "Let me go! Since you don't want me, what right do you have to control me!"

"Just because I call you Big Sister! Big Sister Hu, I've always admired you. I admire your abilities, your sense of responsibility at work, and your resilience in the face of harassment."

But what about now? Look at yourself, are you still the Sister Hu I admired?

Hu Lijin stopped struggling, and tears silently streamed down her face.

Wu Zhiyuan released his grip: "Sister Hu, let's sit down and have a proper talk. I won't let you go out and do anything foolish."

Hu Lijin stared at him blankly, then slowly sat back down in her chair, her eyes vacant.

After a long while, Hu Lijin slowly spoke:

"Zhiyuan, I feel so choked up. Zhou Tianming not only cheated on me with another woman, but he also had a child with her!"

Hu Lijin began to recount her emotional entanglement with Zhou Tianming.

"Zhou Tianming and I were classmates in college, and we started dating in our junior year."

He was very poor at that time. His family was from the countryside, and his parents were farmers.

My hometown is also in the countryside, but my father is a craftsman, so our family is a little better off than his.

"The year we graduated, he passed the civil service exam in Longcheng City, while I returned to my hometown, Xindian Town, to work."

He said he would bring me over once he had established himself. But ten years have passed since then.

Over the course of ten years, he rose from a staff member to a deputy section chief and then to a section chief. In Xindian Town, I went from a clerk to the deputy director of the Economic Development Office, then to the director of the Party and Government Office, and finally to the deputy mayor.

We live apart, only meeting in Longcheng on weekends and holidays. We bought a house in Longcheng.

"It's not that I don't want to be transferred to Longcheng, but he always makes excuses, either saying he's not capable enough or that he'll find a way to postpone it."

"I have a best friend who was my classmate in high school and also works in Longcheng."

A while ago, she called me and during our casual conversation, she mentioned that she thought she had seen Zhou Tianming in her neighborhood.

I didn't pay much attention at the time. Zhou Tianming works and lives in Longcheng; it's normal for him to appear in any neighborhood.

"My best friend called me again later and said that she saw it again, and that Zhou Tianming was playing in the neighborhood with a little boy, who looked about three or four years old."

She felt something was wrong because Zhou Tianming was alone with the child at the community playground.

When I heard this, I was completely stunned.

We've been married for so many years and have no children. He always said he didn't care, and I thought he really didn't. But then suddenly a child appeared…

"I took a few days off without telling Zhou Tianming and went to Longcheng secretly."

I waited near my best friend's apartment complex. After two days, I finally saw him.

He was playing with his child at the amusement park.

The child rode on his shoulders, and he laughed heartily.

I followed them and saw which building and which unit they entered.

After they went in, I knocked on the door.

The door opened.

The woman opened the door.

The woman was wearing an apron; she wasn't particularly beautiful, but she was pleasing to the eye and seemed very honest.

My gaze fell on the little boy's face.

Those eyebrows, those features—he's a spitting image of Zhou Tianming.

A child who is three years old is at the cutest age, with a round face, big eyes, and an innocent look.

My heart felt like it had been squeezed tightly, the pain almost suffocating me.

This is my husband's son. He had a son with another woman.

At this moment, Zhou Tianming came out of the inner room, asking as he walked: Are you delivering a package?

The moment he saw me, his face turned deathly pale, and he stood frozen in the middle of the living room, completely motionless.

Time seemed to stand still.

The woman looked at Zhou Tianming, then at me, and seemed to understand something. She instinctively hugged the child tighter.

The child called out to Zhou Tianming in a childish voice: "Dad."

That one word, "Dad," was like a knife, piercing my heart.

I stood at the doorway, watching all of this, and suddenly felt like an intruder, like an unwanted person.

In this house, there is him, there is her, and there is their child, a happy family of three.

And I, the rightful wife, felt like an outsider.

Isn't that ridiculous? It's utterly ridiculous.

I stood there, not knowing what to say.

Before I came, I thought about many possibilities, many ways to question them, I thought about making a scene, and I thought about tearing things apart.

But when the moment actually came, I couldn't say anything.

Zhou Tianming was the first to react.

He strode over, grabbed my arm, and said in a low voice, "Lijing, what brings you here? Let's go outside and talk."

I shook off his hand and walked into the house.

I just want to see what this house he's been hiding for four years looks like.

The living room wasn't big and was simply furnished, but it was very clean.

There were children's toys on the sofa, baby bottles and children's water cups on the coffee table, and several photo frames on the TV cabinet, showing Zhou Tianming with that woman and that child.

One of the photos shows the three of them in a park. Zhou Tianming is holding a child, and the woman is leaning on his shoulder, smiling so happily and contentedly.

I've never seen that kind of smile before.

We've been together for ten years and married for eight. We've taken many photos together, but he's never smiled like that before.

When he smiled at me, it was always gentle, restrained, and polite.

I thought that was just his personality: steady, reserved, and not good at expressing his emotions.

So that's not it. He just doesn't smile at me like that.

The woman stood there holding the child, not daring to say a word.

The child was perched on her shoulder, but his eyes were fixed on me, probably wondering who this strange woman was.

I turned my head and looked at Zhou Tianming.

He stood in front of me, wanting to say something, but said nothing.

I asked him: How long has it been?

He doesn't speak.

I asked again, raising my voice: How long have I been asking you!

He finally spoke, saying it would be four years.

He kept it from me for four years, and I knew nothing about it!

Four years, more than a thousand days and nights.

He played the role of a good husband in front of me, coming home to spend time with me on weekends, calling me to check on me, making me think that our relationship was as solid as a rock.

In reality, he already had another woman and a child in his life.

Every day after get off work, he comes home to this house, eats the food cooked by this woman, and holds this child in his arms.

What am I? What am I, really?

I opened my eyes, looked at him, and asked: Why?

He kept his head down, not daring to look at me.

I asked again: Zhou Tianming, tell me why? You said you didn't care that I couldn't have children, you said it was okay without children, that it would be good for the two of us to live a lifetime together. Were all those words lies to me?

Zhou Tianming said, "I'm sorry. But our family has only had one son for three generations, and my parents have wanted a grandson for many years. Every time I go home, they nag about it, making me feel ashamed. I have no choice."

I shouted, "You had no choice, so you lied to me? You had no choice, so you kept another woman and had her child behind my back?"

"You have no choice, so you can hide another woman for four years, have another child with her, and then continue to play the loving couple with me?"